A Very Different Tune On Marching Bands

RAY RECCHI

The worm has turned. What went around has come around. Life, as a dainty colleague so aptly put it, has come around to bite me on the rump.

I, known and despised far and wide as The Man Who Hates Marching Bands, have become a ``band parent.``

That`s right, dear readers, I have met the enemy and he is I.

Oh, the ignominy of it.

In more than one column going back several years, you see, I have expressed my aversion to marching bands.

What, you ask, could I possibly have against young musicians marching in formation while playing such snappy, happy, toe-tappy music?

Well, for one thing, I have trouble endorsing a musical form that makes the compositions of Duke Ellington, Barry Manilow and John Philip Sousa sound pretty much the same.

And, although there are many exceptions, there is still an inordinate number of marching bands in which ``staying in step`` takes precedence over ``playing in tune.``

Still, that`s just one guy`s opinion. I never suggested that all marching bands be disbanded. And it is not one of the pressing issues of our time.

ANGRY READERS BAND TOGETHER

But based on the nasty letters I received from angry band members, parents and other supporters, one would have thought I had started a movement to rid the country of apple pie.

Even that didn`t bother me much, though. Receiving hate mail from disgruntled readers is just part of the job. Besides, in the overwhelming majority of cases, angry letters are the end of it. We agree to disagree and go our separate ways.

Which is all well and good for a person who is free to go his separate way. That category, alas, excludes parents.

For ``the good of the kids,`` parents are often forced into situations we would otherwise avoid. These include, for example, attending elementary school drama productions, interminable awards ceremonies, dance recitals and even the occasional rock concert.

So it was that I found myself in the role of ``band parent`` when my daughter decided to put aside the piano in favor of the clarinet when she started middle school last year.

At first, it didn`t bother me. If Laura exhibited as much devotion to the clarinet as she did the piano, I figured she would be out of the band before I ever had to actually attend a performance.

Naturally, she proved to be a veritable woodwind phenom. One year from when she elicited her first ear-splitting squeak from a clarinet, she was vaulted into membership in ``honors`` band and marching band.

HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR CROW?

Although her band director is strict and demanding, she loves it. ``Everyone knows each other and helps each other,`` she said. ``Being in band is like being part of a family.``

Which makes me -- The Man Who Hates Marching Bands -- an in-law to a marching band. For the good of my daughter, I resigned myself to dining on plate upon plate of crow as she and her clarinet march through middle and high school.

So it was that I stood on the shoulder of a major highway with hundreds of other band-in-laws for two hours last Saturday, waiting for my daughter to march by in her first parade.

Laden with a still camera and a video camera, I clapped, snapped and taped the band, jogging nearly a mile in the process to repeatedly catch and pass them for more and better pictures.

As I listened to the band play Notre Dame`s fight song over and over again, it occurred to me that only one year ago, the only way I would have attended such an event was at gunpoint.

Now I was not only there of my own (albeit limited) free will, but actually enjoying it. And suddenly I understood why so large a gap had existed between myself and marching band fans.

One can`t hear the music properly, you see, until one`s own kid is playing in a marching band.